Employment law changes in June 2014 allowed all employees with at least 26 weeks' continuous employment to apply for flexible working arrangements. Flexible working encompasses a number of different working patterns including flexitime, place of work and shift work.

The report, which is based on official figures and Timewise's analysis of 3.5 million job adverts, suggests that 14.1 million people want the option to work flexibly. This amounts to 46% of working people in the UK.

The study also revealed the sectors most likely to offer flexible working:

the health and social care (20%) and education (13%) sectors contained the most jobs advertising flexible work

the least likely were IT, marketing and engineering jobs, with only 2% offering flexible work.

The report said employers should offer flexible working options when they recruit to ensure they attract the best talent:

"Employers are cutting themselves off from a proportion of the candidate market, by not stating their openness to flexibility in their recruitment advertising. These 'lost' candidates include some of the very best available talent.

"Employers can begin to alleviate the talent crisis, and improve diversity at senior levels, by offering flexibility at the point of recruitment."

Contact us to talk about how you can offer flexible working arrangements.